The Powder River was famously said by exuberant parties to be a mile wide, an inch deep, and to run uphill, though that was an exaggeration. Captain Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition named it the Redstone in 1806, then later learned that the Indians used the same name, pronounced “Wah-ha-sah.” Clark found the river disagreeably muddy, but also observed great numbers of buffalo feeding on the plains, elk on the points, antelopes, and some bighorn animals at a distance on the hills. He camped just across the Yellowstone River from the mouth of the Powder on the night of July 30, 1806. In the spring of 1876, Generals Terry and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, moving from the east for a campaign against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne Indians, camped on the Yellowstone about 25 miles west of here on June 10th. From there, Terry and Custer ordered Major Marcus Reno with six troops of the 7th Cavalry to scout the Powder and Tongue valleys for signs of the Indians. During his reconnaissance, Remp and his command swung farther west than ordered and picked up a fresh trail on Rosebud Creek, and this trail led Custer to his fatal encounter with the tribes on the Little Big Horn River a few days later.